Tag Archives: Scotty McCreery

Nashville's celebrities were all over in the past week - featured and awarded at the Billboard Music Awards, judging American Idol, judging Cannes Film Festival and more. Click on the photo above to see our weekly Seeing Stars gallery to see where they were spotted.

George Strait celebrated his 61st birthday over the weekend and, thanks to a months-long campaign headed up by his fans and longtime record label MCA Nashville, he got one heck of a birthday present: his 60th No. 1 song.

The drive to send “Give It All You Got Tonight” to No. 1 while Strait was 60 years old, called the “Sixty for Sixty” campaign, started on Valentine’s Day via Facebook and Twitter with a group of fans who encouraged country radio stations to play the record in an effort to get the song to the top of the charts by Strait’s birthday on May 18.

Tonight, Scotty McCreery will debut his new single, “See You Tonight,” on the show that made him famous. McCreery won season 10 of "American Idol" and went on to sell more than a million copies of his debut album, “Clear as Day.”

Now he’s preparing to release a follow-up and this time around, he wrote several of the songs himself.

“We’re excited about it,” McCreery says. “It’s one of those things where we’re taking our time with this album and making sure all the songs are right.”

McCreery says songwriting isn’t something new for him – he’s been doing it since he was a kid.

“Who knows if they were good or not, but I was writing them,” McCreery says. “Now that we have time and we’re not rushing this album, we’re writing with the best of the best in Nashville.”

No one was more shocked than Bryan, who doubled over when he heard the news.

“I don’t know what to say, guys,” said Bryan. “Thank you guys so much, fans for doing this to me. Thank you so much for making my life what it is and what I always wanted it to be. What I always wanted to be was a country singer who got to ride on a tour bus and show up every night … and sing. I just started headlining, this doesn’t even feel real. This means the world to me, and I will never take it for granted.”

With the ACM Awards three days away, the star-packed ceremony keeps gaining momentum as more celebrities are announced for appearances on the show.

Jewel will partner with ACM Lifting Lives, the academy’s charitable arm, to perform a medley of her hit “Hands” combined with new song “Fill a Heart,” which was written by singer/songwriter Tori Kelly.

The peformance is presented by ConAgra Foods’ Child Hunger Ends Here campaign and marks the fifth year the ACM has used one of its awards show’s performance slots to highlight a worthy cause. Kelly wrote “Fill a Heart” for the Child Hunger Ends Here campaign to “bring the story of hunger to life,” according to the Academy of Country Music.

The 48th annual ACM Awards air live 7 p.m. Sunday from the MGM Grand’s Garden Arena in Las Vegas on CBS.

Tennessean coverage

Tennessean music writer Cindy Watts and photographer Larry McCormack leave today for Las Vegas to cover the ACM Awards. Check back often here at Tennessean.com/music to find their reports, photos and videos, and also follow along at @TNMusicNews on Twitter and at www.Facebook.com/TNMusicNews

If there’s anyone who underestimates the power of the dollars spent by the thousands of fans who flock to Nashville for the CMA Music Festival each summer, they need only look at that clarinet in the hands of an Antioch High School student.

This brings the total of the association’s Metro Public Schools donations to more than $6.5 million, which helps purchase instruments for students. Since the program’s inception in 2006, the CMA overall has given a total of more than $7.6 million to schools and other organizations.

Rising country star and “American Idol” winner Scotty McCreery hosted the concert, which featured more than 300 Metro Nashville Public School “All Stars.” As someone who himself just emerged from the halls of teen angst, 19-year-old McCreery certainly understands the fears and dreams of high school musicians.

For country newcomer Sarah Darling, it’s nice to have fans in high places.

Thanks to a producer on ABC’s hit show “The Bachelor,” Darling was invited to perform her song “Home To Me” during the episode that airs at 7 p.m. Monday on WKRN-Channel 2. That song really resonated with the producer after her fiancé said she “felt like home to him” during their engagement.

Monday’s episode was filmed in October in Whitefish, Mont., a place Darling calls “one of the most gorgeous places on earth.” There in the town square, she sang for Sean Lowe, the bachelor, and his date, whose identity Darling wouldn’t reveal. The whole town was also invited for the not-exactly-intimate concert.

“It’s such a great opportunity to be in front of that many millions of people, singing your single,” says Darling, who already has 26 “Grand Ole Opry” appearances in her fresh career.

She’s also gearing up to hit the road Valentine’s weekend. “It’s called the ‘Weekend Roadtrip Tour,’ and I’ll be opening up for (‘American Idol’ winner) Scotty McCreery. I am so excited because this is my first real tour.”

When not on the road, Darling is finishing up her new album with star-maker and producer Dan Huff (who has worked with Keith Urban, Hunter Hayes and Rascal Flatts). Half the songs on the album, due out this summer, will be self-penned compositions, something she is very proud of. Until then, she has a four-song “Home To Me” EP preview that just became available for download.

When asked about her new role as the MoonPie spokes-darling (I made that title up), she admitted that she has a few cases of the tasty southern morsels at her home. “I have to give them out, or I will just eat them,” she laughed.

Christmas is Scotty McCreery’s favorite time of year, so the 19-year-old country star and recent “American Idol” champ didn’t want to have to wait until later in his career to have his first crack at a Christmas album.

The resulting “Christmas With Scotty McCreery” remembers the reason for the season with religious songs, but also has a few swingin’ surprises — he says some Rat Pack comparisons were made behind the scenes — and a barn-burning closer in Elvis’ “Santa Claus Is Back in Town.”

So what made this year the right year to do this Scotty McCreery Christmas album?

It just felt right. You know, a lot of artists wait ’til farther down their careers, but, for me, we had a pretty long gap between album one, “Clear as Day” and the next one we’re going to put out sometime next year. So, we figured, ya know, you just kind of — not to just bridge the gap — but to get our music out there during the holidays. It felt right. And Christmas is my favorite time of the year, so I was itching to get it done.

Beginning with an appearance tonight on NBC’s “15th Annual Christmas In Rockefeller Center,” Scotty McCreery will spread country-flavored Christmas cheer throughout the next few weeks with several television appearances and holiday performances.

All of it comes in support of the "American Idol" winner’s current album “Christmas With Scotty McCreery,” an 11-song collection that features McCreery’s signature baritone voice on two original holiday tracks along with classic holiday favorites.

McCreery will join artists including Mariah Carey, Rod Stewart and Cee Lo Green as performers for tonight’s New York Christmas tree lighting in Rockefeller Center, which airs at 7 p.m. He also is scheduled to appear twice – Dec. 11 and Dec. 24 – on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

On Saturday, he will perform and host his own holiday special, “Christmas With Scotty McCreery & Friends,” which will premiere on Great American Country at 10 p.m. He also will present at the American Country Awards, which airs live at 7 p.m. Dec. 10 on Fox, and perform on the "CMA Country Christmas" special, airing at 8 p.m. Dec. 20 on ABC.